Stocks endured yet another bearish week, extending the losing streak for a third straight week to Thursday, as jittery investors continued to offload their holdings amid a confidence crisis.
Market operators said most investors opted to take a 'wait-and-see' approach amid market volatility, waiting for lucrative investment opportunities.
Sellers dominated the trading floor almost throughout the week as investors focused on protecting their funds while optimism is fading.
This week saw four trading days as the market remained closed on Sunday on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat. Of them, three sessions closed lower while one managed to close green.
The benchmark DSEX index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) finally went down by more than 19 points or 0.31 per cent to settle the week at 6,254.54. The DSEX shed almost 120 points in the past three weeks.
Top index draggers were Square Pharma, Renata, Power Grid, IFIC Bank, Uttara Bank, AB Bank and Olympic as they jointly contributed a fall of almost 26 points in the key index.
Cautious investors preferred to stay on the sidelines and remain watchful of the prevailing volatility in the market, said EBL Securities, in its weekly analysis.
"Despite investors being active on both sides of the trading fence, sellers maintained their dominance owing to faded optimism, which led the bears to extend their control for another week," said the stockbroker.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 Index, which consists of blue-chip companies, plunged almost 13 points to 2,126 while the DSES index, which represents Shariah-based companies, saw a fractional loss of 0.70 point to close at 1,360.
The market turnover stood at Tk 35.08 billion this week as against Tk 33.70 billion in the week before.
Accordingly, the average daily turnover stood at Tk 8.77 billion, which was 4.10 per cent higher than the previous week's average of Tk 8.43 billion.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers, as out of 399 issues traded, 232 saw price erosion, 136 witnessed price appreciation and 31 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The pharmaceutical sector kept its dominance on the turnover chart, capturing more than 17 cent of the week's total turnover, followed by textile (14 per cent) and engineering sector (10 per cent).
Most sectors faced price correction with the IT sector suffering the most, losing 2.4 per cent, followed by power, non-bank financial institutions, textile, engineering and banking sectors.
On the other hand, paper & printing sector saw the highest price appreciation, gaining 4 per cent, followed by travel & leisure, cement, pharma sectors.
Central Pharmaceuticals became the most traded shares, with shares worth Tk 1.59 billion changing hands, followed by Best Holdings, Fu-Wang Ceramic, Orion Infusion and Fortune Shoes.
Fine Foods was the week's top gainer, posting a 25.18 per cent gain while Aramit Cement was the worst loser, shedding 10.76 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower for the three consecutive weeks with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI) losing 77 points to close at 17,928 and the Selective Categories Index (CSCX) shedding 39 points to 10,744.
Of the issues traded, 183 declined, 126 advanced and 28 others remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 22.62 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 738 million.
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